The Definition of Family
by Elvira Woolley
Summary: When a group of children is saved from a crumbling world,they are plunged into a whole new situation.Aboard the USS Enterprise,new problems r one,the eldest of the group,has received critical injuries from falling debris.With the force of the trauma and loss sitting on her shoulders, she finds herself in the care of Commander Spock. Mentor-fic, Spock/OC. Not cliched story.


Prologue

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_The temple walls trembled around the small, convened group. The ground shook unstably underneath their feet, causing uncertainty and horror to break through the carefully crafted masks of all present. They whispered amongst themselves, at least the younger ones, and unease could be heard from the tonality of their hushed words. _

_The oldest of the group, the only one who gave off a fixed calm exterior, ushered the group of children into the main hall of the voices of the High Council echoed around them, shouts to evacuate. One of the women came to them, quickly took the eldest child's arm in her hands.  
_

_"Quickly now, children." She says, her eyes conveying a carefully concealed sense of dismay. The group moved out after the others, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a plummeting statue. They backtracked in front of it, the dust temporarily blinding them. The woman tugged the eldest child, whom faced the crowd of children behind her. _

_"Come, everyone. Stay together." The girl instructed, a quiet sense of authority in her voice, trying to keep her voice from breaking. No matter how afraid she was in this moment, she refused to let the emotion overpower her. I was not taught this way, she told herself. Her mental walls were straining against the intense feeling. She had never experienced such terror before, none of them had._

_By the time they made it into the hallway, they were forced to go through single file. Fallen stones were beginning to clog the already thin vein through the mountain. The woman went first, tried to urge the eldest girl through after, but the girl refused. She hastily pushed each child through before her before exiting the temple herself. They raced, their hearts pounding in their sides and down through their legs, after the rest of the Council. The girl thought that the hallway would never end, that time seemed agonizingly slow. How could this be happening?_

_A light appeared at the end of the passage, through the dirt and dust of the crumbling city. A luminous, swirling energy encircled the High Council from where the girl could see them, and panic set in when she realized what it was. _Wait! Wait for us! _She wanted to scream, momentarily losing control over herself. Her arms pumped with the fierce emotion, her heart hammering. _

_"Quickly, children!" The woman shouted to them as the group neared the entrance, her arm outstretched. The girl reached for the hand, even though she knew she was to far away to reach it. But then the High Council was gone. _

_The group of children broke through the opening, the hot sun beating it's last ray's on it's collapsing planet. They looked every which way fretfully, restlessly, and the girl tried to grab as many as possible._

_"Stay together. Get away from the edge of the rock face. Stay together, now_—"

_A giant rumbling sounded above them like explosions. Many small, pale faces turned to face the mountain side, dark eyes widening. The girl looked over her shoulder, instinctively raising her arms in front of the children. It was mesmerizing, awesome, formidable to watch_—

_The girl saw wisps of silver light flash in front of her eyes, spinning slowly at first, getting faster, faster_—

_A structure crumbled under the force of the trembling, and time seemed to stop. Numerous pairs of eyes watched as an avalanche of disintegrated rubble came thundering down at them, a fallen temple-side edifice roaring towards them mercilessly_—

_The silver nearly blinded her now, but she closed her eyes and leaned over the group of children, trying to block the impact as much as she could. Her body tensed, her breath coming too quickly. _

_She felt the excruciating impact, then the world went black._

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A/n I'm giving this story another go. The first time, I began not having a known route to where this story was going. So, I reevaluated and now I'm absolutely sure on the plot to this story. I might still be slow in updating, but at least I _know _what to write for each chapter. Sorry everyone. The rewrite will be better anyway, or so I hope. :)

Please read & review! I appreciate all of the reviewers on the other story, and I don't want that to go unsaid. Thank you all for sticking through with the other one, and I hope this new story doesn't disappoint you!

Until we meet again! -Elvira Woolley


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